Ferdinand II of Austria

Ferdinand II (9 July 1578-15 February 1637) was King of Bohemia from 1617 to 1619 and 1620 to 1637, King of Hungary from 1618 to 1625, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1619 to 1637, succeeded in all titles by Ferdinand III of Austria. During his rule, he crushed the Bohemian rebellion that began the Thirty Years War.

Biography
Ferdinand von Habsburg was the son of Karl II of Austria, the Archduke of the Imperial Archduchy of Austria, and his wife Maria Anna of Bavaria. After making a pilgrimage to Loreto in 1595, he put down any Protestant unrest in his lands.

With his relative Emperor Matthias I of Austria gravely ill and dying, in 1617 Ferdinand was elected as King of Bohemia by the Bohemian Diet to ensure a fluid Habsburg succession to the throne. In 1618 the Hungarian estates made him king, and in 1619 he was made Holy Roman Emperor.

Under his rule, he oversaw the Counter-Reformation and the Thirty Years War, crushing the Bohemian rebellion in 1620 at the Battle of White Mountain. Ferdinand gave command of his army to Albrecht Wallenstein, a wealthy Bohemian nobleman, and his rule saw the brutal sack of Magdeburg in 1631. His army won the First Battle of Nordlingen in 1634, convincing France to enter the war to prevent a Habsburg takeover of Europe.

He died in 1637, and was succeeded by Ferdinand III of Austria as Emperor.